"In the future I think Brown will be remembered as an absolutely first-class chancellor of the exchequer, but not quite so good a prime minister. His big achievement was to steer us through one of the worst recessions in world history. That's what he will be remembered for. Britain was the best economic performer in Europe. I think he was a better chancellor than me. But the skill you need for leading is not quite the same as the economic skill you need as chancellor.

"I think he very much suffered by comparison with Tony Blair. People tend to compare prime ministers with their predecessors. As prime minister he's been OK but not brilliant."

Anthony Seldon, Tony Blair's biographer, who has now written a book about Brown

"As a prime minister, history will judge him at least as well as James Callaghan, to whom he bears so many similarities. Both of them took over from younger men who were far more showy figures, both had been chancellor and both men were far more entrenched in the Labour party and the Labour movement. Both also had the option of going for an early election and chose not to take it. Both faced major economic crises. It was widely thought he would under-perform as prime minister and he proved better than expected. Part of this is because his premiership will very much be remembered for the economic crisis, and handling it well both domestically and internationally.

"It was both a curse and a blessing that his premiership was so dominated by this one factor. While not a natural leader he did grow much more into the office. Sarah Brown made him a much more trusting figure, less defended. Overall, he'll be remembered very fondly by the Labour party, as someone who was almost more lovable because of his faults."

Clare Short, who served in the cabinet with Brown for six years

"I think he'll be viewed as a tragic figure. He was a dedicated, radical young Labour activist who then plotted with Blair and Mandelson over the formation of New Labour, which became obsessed with presentation and thus ended up with poor policy-making and in hock to Murdoch. To see him as a victim is just false. He was more powerful in creating New Labour than Blair was.

"As chancellor he presided over a massive increase in public spending which was possible because we were in the boom. Now most of this increase is going to be taken back, which is tragic in itself. On Iraq he was marginalised by Blair for most of the time, but if he had moved with Robin [Cook] and me, we could have stopped it. But he didn't move. I just think the young Brown wouldn't have believed what he ended up doing. Now he's like a sad old bear that people have been poking sticks at. It's hard not to feel sorry for him."

Richard Jackman, professor of economics at the LSE

"He will be remembered as having managed the economy very well. Like everyone else in the political and financial establishment he failed to anticipate the crash, and that has been a very serious mistake. On the other hand, some of the things which have been successful can be specifically attributed to him, notably the stabilisation of the financial situation in the first few years of the Labour government. What went wrong is that rather than needing to support this with extra taxes, the taxes were actually cut because the financial bubble meant the government didn't need the extra money. Then the bubble burst and the tax revenues collapsed.

"Also to his credit is the way the financial meltdown was handled. There's no doubt that on the big picture he did the right thing."